


At The Mexican Border

by afteriwake



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dead People, Dead Tara Mclay, F/M, First Kiss, Giles Thinking, Mexico, POV Alternating, POV Rupert Giles, POV Willow Rosenberg, Past Tara Mclay/Willow Rosenberg, Post-Season/Series 05, Road Trips, San Ysidro, Willow Thinking, thoughts, tijuana
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:34:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24292150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: It takes a trip across the border for two people to admit their feelings.
Relationships: Rupert Giles/Willow Rosenberg
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	At The Mexican Border

**Author's Note:**

> Answer to challenge #130 by Andrea at You Got The Stones?

Willow looked out of the passenger seat of Giles' car. She'd said she wanted to go to San Diego, and no one else was able to take her. Tara was there...

Tara. God, she missed her. When they'd had that fight, Willow had felt as if her heart had broken into a million pieces, and she thought it would never heal. And then it started to heal, with help from Xander and Anya and Giles. Buffy was too busy dwelling in her own misery to notice.

Then when Buffy started hitting the bottle, Willow found a new motive in life: get Buffy sober. And it worked. Buffy was hitting a year and a half next week. Willow couldn't have been more proud of her friend. They had shared tears over their awful love lives and laughter over everything else.

And then Willow got the phone call. Tara was dead, the victim of a drunk driving accident. And Willow's heartbreak was brand new.

"Willow?" Giles asked gently. "Are you all right?"

Willow shook her head as they left San Ysidro and headed for the Mexican border. "No. Why couldn't I go to her funeral, Giles? What was so wrong with me that I couldn't?"

Giles remained silent until he pulled into the line of cars waiting to park in the pay lots on the US side of the border. "Did you know I couldn't go to Jenny's grave until a few weeks after her death?"

"No, I didn't know that."

Giles nodded as his car slowly inched forward. "But I went, eventually. Buffy was there, with me. Maybe you just weren't ready, or not ready to go alone and make your peace with her." He turned towards her and offered a sympathetic smile. "We shall stay here in Tiajuana for a while, since I need to buy some special herbs for the shop. Visit some of the shops with me. Maybe your mind will clear."

She touched her seat, looking at the dashboard. She was painfully aware of how close Giles was, and how much it made her skin tingle. She had never thought of him like this before...who was she kidding? Ever since Tara left, and he was there for her, she'd entertained thoughts of them together. "Okay."

**\---**

It was hard not to hand money to the beggars on the street, but after one of them tried to snatch her purse Willow found it much easier. She roamed the streets of Tiajuana with Giles, grasping his hand for support and also so no one would hit on her. It was a scheme that worked well.

Willow marveled at how smooth his hands were, even though he had been training Buffy for years, and had done honest hard work beforehand. She would have expected a callus or two, maybe. Instead, it was smooth and very lightly scarred, and even those scars were not jagged. He shouldn't have been scarred at all, she thought, surprised by her thoughts. Yes, she had always been protective of him, but now...

She turned her attention to the Mexican blankets being offered. They were rich colored blankets, with blue and gray and green and every other color jumping out at her. "Giles?"

"Yes?" he asked, turning around.

"Do you have any money on you?"

"Of course I do," he said softly. "Which one would you like?"

"The red one," she said, lifting up the blankets on top and pulling it out. It was soft, and she knew it would be warm and comfortable if she fell asleep on the ride back to Sunnydale. Giles bartered with the man, finally getting the blanket for $10. He smiled at Willow and then, lightly squeezing her hand, continued down the main street towards the downtown area of Tiajuana.

**\---**

Giles wondered how he'd missed how beautifully Willow had grown. She was no longer the young computer genius who was so unsure of herself that she didn't do anything. She was now a beautiful woman, filled with poise and...at the moment, an unspeakable sorrow. She had loved, and she had lost. Whoever said it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all had obviously never lost as Willow had. Xander, then Oz, and then finally Tara. It all seemed too much for her to carry on her shoulders.

But those shoulders were straight. They were bearing well under the pain. And then, she had shown incredible decency and love when dealing with Buffy and her problem. That had been the moment Giles had realized just what a treasure Willow had become.

Shaking his head, he ducked into the shop he had intended to go into, quickly bought the herbs, and tried to remember that he did have some business to conduct.

**\---**

It was cold by the time they got back to the border of Mexico and the United States. Willow had wrapped the red blanket over her shoulders, clutching the ends so they didn't drag on the floor. They entered the building, where a long line of people was waiting to say they were US citizens so they could go home.

It was with surprise that Willow took Giles’s hand as they stood in line. "Thank you. I think...can we go by the grave?"

Giles nodded. "Of course, Willow."

She kissed him then, not the simple peck on the cheek he had been expecting but a sweet kiss on the lips. It was short and tentative, but as Willow pulled away, Giles smiled at her. "Willow...thank you." She took his hand again as they both stated their citizenship and went back towards the little red car, and back home.


End file.
